The Scientific Miracles in the Holy Qur’an (1)

The Qur’an is the literal word of God, which He revealed to

His Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through the Angel Gabriel. It was memorized by Muhammad (pbuh) who then

dictated it to his Companions. They, in

turn, memorized it, wrote it down, and

reviewed it with the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). moreover, the Prophet Muhammad

(pbuh) reviewed the Qur’an with

the Angel Gabriel once each year and

twice in the last year of his life. From

the time the Qur’an was revealed, until

this day, there has always been a

huge number of Muslims who have

memorized all of the Qur’an, letter by letter. Some of them have even been able to memorize all of the Qur’an by the age of ten. Not one letter of the Qur’an has been changed over the centuries. The Qur’an, which was revealed fourteen centuries ago, mentioned facts only recently discovered or proven by scientists.

This proves without doubt that the Qur’an must be the literal word of

God, revealed by Him to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and that the

Qur’an was not authored by Muhammad (pbuh) or by any other human

being. This also proves that Muhammad (pbuh) is truly a prophet sent

by God. It is beyond reason that anyone fourteen hundred years

ago would have known these facts discovered or proven only

recently with advanced equipment and sophisticated scientific

methods. Some examples follow.

A) The Qur’an on Human Embryonic

Development:

In the Holy Qur’an, God speaks about the stages of man’s

embryonic development:

{ We created man from an extract of clay.

Then We made him as a drop in a place of

settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the

drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing,

and blood clot), thenWemade the alaqah into

a mudghah (chewed substance)..}

 (Qur’an, 23:12-14)

Literally, the Arabic word alaqah has three meanings:

(1) leech, (2) suspended thing, and (3) blood clot.

In comparing a leech to an embryo in the alaqah stage, we find

similarity between the two,  as we can see in figure 1. Also, the

embryo at this stage obtains nourishment from the blood of the

mother, similar to the leech, which feeds on the blood of others.

The second meaning of the word alaqah is “suspended thing.”

This is what we can see in figures 2 and 3, the suspension of the

embryo, during the alaqah stage, in the womb of the mother.

Figure 1: Drawings illustrating the similarities in appearance between a leech and a

human embryo at the alaqah stage. (Leech drawing from Human Development as

Described in the Qur’an and Sunnah, Moore and others, p. 37, modified from

Integrated Principles of Zoology, Hickman and others. Embryo drawing from The

Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 73.)

Figure 2: We can

see in this diagram

the suspension of

an embryo during

the alaqah stage in

the womb (uterus)

of the mother.

(The Developing

Human, Moore

and Persaud, 5th

ed., p. 66.)

 Figure 3: In this photomicrograph, we can

see the suspension of an embryo (marked B)

during the alaqah stage (about 15 days old)

in the womb of the mother. The actual size

of the embryo is about 0.6 mm. (The Developing

Human, Moore, 3rd ed., p. 66, from

Histology, Leeson and Leeson.)

The third meaning of the word alaqah is “blood clot.” We

find that the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs during

the alaqah stage is similar to that of a blood clot. This is due to

the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the

embryo during this stage (see figure 4). Also during this stage,

the blood in the embryo does not circulate until the end of the third

week. Thus, the embryo at this stage is like a clot of blood.

 Figure 4: Diagram of the

primitive cardiovascular

system in an embryo during

the alaqah stage. The

external appearance of

the embryo and its sacs

is similar to that of a

blood clot, due to the

presence of relatively

large amounts of blood

present in the embryo.

(The Developing Human,

Moore, 5th ed., p. 65.)

So the three meanings of the word alaqah correspond accurately

to the descriptions of the embryo at the alaqah stage.

The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage.

The Arabic word mudghah means “chewed substance.” If one

were to take a piece of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and

then compare it with an embryo at the mudghah stage, we would

conclude that the embryo at the mudghah stage is similar in

appearance to a chewed substance. This is because of the somites

at the back of the embryo that “somewhat resemble teethmarks in

a chewed substance.” (see figures 5 and 6).

How could Muhammad (pbuh) have possibly known all this about

fourteen hundred years ago, when scientists have only recently

discovered this using advanced equipment and powerful

microscopes which did not exist at that time?

 Figure 5: Photograph of

a 28-day-old embryo at

the mudghah stage. The

embryo at this stage is

similar in appearance to

a chewed substance,

because the somites at

the back of the embryo

somewhat resemble

teeth marks in a chewed

substance. The actual

size of the embryo is 4

mm. (The Developing

Human, Moore and

Persaud, 5th ed., p. 82,

from Professor Hideo

Nishimura, Kyoto University,

Kyoto, Japan.)

 Figure 6: When comparing

the appearance of an embryo

at the mudghah stage with a

piece of gum that has been

chewed, we find similarity between

the two.

A) Drawing of an embryo at

the mudghah stage. We can

see here the somites at the

back of the embryo that look

like teeth marks. (The Developing

Human, Moore and Persaud,

5th ed., p. 79.)

B) Photograph of a piece of

gum that has been chewed.

Leeuwenhoek was  the first scientist to observe human sperm

cells (spermatozoa) using an improved microscope in 1677 (more

than 1000 years after Muhammad (pbuh). They mistakenly thought

that the sperm cell contained a miniature preformed human being

that grew when it was deposited in the female genital tract.

Professor Emeritus Keith L. Moore is one of the world’s most

prominent scientists in the fields of anatomy and embryology and

is the author of the book entitled The Developing Human, which

has been translated into eight languages. This book is a scientific

reference work and was chosen by a special committee in the

United States as the best book authored by one person. Dr. Keith

Moore is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the

University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. There, he was Associate

Dean of Basic Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and for 8 years

was the Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. In 1984, he

received the most distinguished award presented in the field of

anatomy in Canada, the J.C.B. Grant Award from the Canadian

Association of Anatomists. He has directed many international

associations, such as the Canadian and American Association of

Anatomists and the Council of the Union of Biological Sciences.

In 1981, during the Seventh Medical Conference in Dammam,

Saudi Arabia, Professor Moore said: “It has been a great pleasure

for me to help clarify statements in the Qur’an about human

development. It is clear to me that these statements must have

come to Muhammad from God, because almost all of this knowledge

was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves

to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God.”

Consequently, Professor Moore was asked the following question:

“Does this mean that you believe that the Qur’an is the word

of God?” He replied: “I find no difficulty in accepting this.”

During one conference, Professor Moore stated: “....Because

the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous

process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms

mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah (what Muhammad (pbuh) said,

did, or approved of). The proposed system is simple, comprehensive,

and conforms with present embryological knowledge. The

intensive studies of the Qur’an and hadeeth (reliably transmitted

reports by the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) companions of what he

said, did, or approved of) in the last four years have revealed a

system for classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was

recorded in the seventh century A.D. Although Aristotle, the

founder of the science of embryology, realized that chick embryos

developed in stages from his studies of hen’s eggs in the fourth

century B.C., he did not give any details about these stages. As

far as it is known from the history of embryology, little was known

about the staging and classification of human embryos until the

twentieth century. For this reason, the descriptions of the human

embryo in the Qur’an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in

the seventh century. The only reasonable conclusion is: these

descriptions were revealed to Muhammad from God. He could not

have known such details because he was an illiterate man with

absolutely no scientific training.”